Things To Make Part 23

3. Complemental air, which can be drawn in after a normal inspiration.

About 100 cubic inches.

4. Residual air, which cannot be removed from the lungs under any conditions by voluntary effort. About 120 cubic inches.

The first three added together give the vital capacity. This, as an addition sum will show, is very much greater than the volume of air taken in during a normal inspiration.

The simplest method of testing the capacity of an individual pair of lungs is embodied in the apparatus shown in Figs. 165 and 166. A metal box is submerged, bottom upwards, in a tank of somewhat larger dimensions, until the water is level with the bottom inside and out. A counterweight is attached to the smaller box to place it almost in equilibrium, so that if air is blown into the box it will at once begin to rise.

If we make the container 7-1/16 inches square inside, in plan, every inch it rises will represent approximately 50 cubic inches of air blown in; and a height of 7 inches, by allowing for 325 cubic inches, with a minimum immersion of half an inch, should suffice even for unusually capacious lungs. The outside box need not be more than 8 inches all ways.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 166.--Section of lung-capacity tester.]

Unless you are an expert with the soldering iron, the making of the boxes should be deputed to a professional tinman, who would turn out the pair for quite a small charge. Specify very thin zinc for the air vessel, and have the top edges stiffened so that they may remain straight.

On receiving the boxes, cut a hole 3/4-inch diameter in the centre of the bottom of the air vessel, and solder round it a piece of tubing, A, 1 inch long, on the outside of the box. In the centre of the larger box make a hole large enough to take a tube, E, with an internal diameter of 1/8 inch.

This tube is 8 inches long and must be quite straight. Next procure a straight wire, C, that fits the inside of the small tube easily; make an eye at the end, and cut off about 9 inches. Bore a hole for the wire in a metal disc 1 inch across.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 166.--Perspective view of lung-capacity tester.]

The air container is then placed in the water box and centred by means of wooden wedges driven in lightly at the corners. Push the small tube through its hole in the water box, and thrust the wire--after pa.s.sing it through the disc and the projection on the air container--into the tube. The tube should reach nearly to the top of the air container, and the wire to the bottom of the water box. Solder the tube to the box, the wire to the disc, and the disc to the container. A little stay, S, will render the tube less liable to bend the bottom of the box. Plug the tube at the bottom.

The wire sliding in the tube will counteract any tendency of the container to tilt over as it rises.

A nozzle, D, for the air tube is soldered into the side of A, as shown.

The counterweight is attached to the container by a piece of fine strong twine which pa.s.ses over two pulleys, mounted on a crossbar of a frame screwed to the sides of the water box, or to an independent base. The bottom of the central pulley should be eight inches above the top of the container, when that is in its lowest position.

For recording purposes, make a scale of inches and tenths, and the corresponding volumes of air, on the side of the upright next the counterweight. The wire, W, is arranged between counterweight and upright so that an easily sliding plate, P, may be pushed down it by the weight, to act as index.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 167.--Apparatus for showing lung power.]

Notes.--The pulleys must work easily, to reduce friction, which renders the readings inaccurate. Absolute accuracy is not obtainable by this apparatus, as the rising of the container lowers the water level slightly, and the air has to support part of the weight of the container which was previously borne by the water. But the inaccuracy is so small as to be practically negligible.

A Pressure Recorder.

[Transcribers note: Even with the precautions used in this project, health standards of 2004 would consider any exposure to mercury dangerous. Water could be subst.i.tuted and the column lengths scaled up by about 13.5.]

If mercury is poured into a vertical tube closed at the bottom, a pressure is exerted on the bottom in the proportion of approximately one pound per square inch for every two inches depth of mercury. Thus, if the column is 30 inches high the bottom pressure is slightly under 15 lbs. per square inch.

This fact is utilized in the pressure recorder shown in Fig. 167, a U-shaped gla.s.s tube half filled with mercury. A rubber tube is attached to the bent-over end of one of the legs, so that the effects of blowing or suction may be communicated to the mercury in that leg. Normally the mercury stands level in both tubes at what may be called the zero mark. Any change of level in one leg is accompanied by an equal change in the opposite direction in the other. Therefore, if by blowing the mercury is made to rise an inch in the left leg, the pressure exerted is obviously that required to support a two-inch column of mercury--that is, 1 lb. per sq. inch. This gives a very convenient standard of measurement, as every inch rise above the zero mark indicates 1 lb. of pressure.

CONSTRUCTION.

The mercury tube should be made first. Take a piece of gla.s.s tubing 20 inches long, and bend it at a point 9 inches from one end after heating in a spirit flame. The legs should be kept as parallel as possible. Lay the tube, while the heated part is still pliant, on a flat surface, the bend projecting over the edge, So that the two legs shall be in line. When the gla.s.s has cooled, bend over two inches of the longer leg to an angle of about 45 degrees.

A standard for the tube is now made out of one-inch wood. Hollow out a bed in which the tube shall lie and be completely protected. To the right of the tube the standard is notched to take a small bottle. The notch should be slightly narrower than the diameter of the bottle, and have its sides hollowed out to fit.

Halfway up the tube draw a zero mark across the standards, and above this a scale of inches in fractions on both sides. Each inch represents 1 lb.

pressure.

The cork of the bottle must be pierced with a red-hot wire for two gla.s.s tubes, one of which is bent over for the blowing tube. Both tubes should be pointed at the bottle end so that they may enter the cork easily. Make the top of the cork air tight with sealing-wax. The purpose of the bottle is to catch any mercury that might be sucked out of the tube; one does not wish mercurial poisoning to result from the experiments. Also it prevents any saliva entering the mercury tube.

When the latter has been secured to the standard by a couple of slips of tin nailed to the front, connect it up with the bottle, and fill it up to the zero mark with mercury poured in through a small paper funnel.

The open end of the tube should be provided with an inch of tubing. Clips placed on this and on the rubber connection between tube and bottle will prevent the escape of mercury should the apparatus be upset when not in use.

The average blowing pressure of which the lungs are capable is about 1-1/2 lbs. per square inch; inspiration pressure without mouth suction about 1 lb. per square inch; suction pressure 2-1/2 to 3 lbs. per square inch.

Caution.--Don't ask people with weak lungs to try experiments with the apparatus described in this chapter.

x.x.xI. HOME-MADE HARMONOGRAPHS.

Have you ever heard of the harmonograph? If not, or if at the most you have very hazy ideas as to what it is, let me explain. It is an instrument for recording on paper, or on some other suitable surface, the figures described by two or more pendulums acting in concert.

The simplest form of harmonograph is shown in Fig. 168. Two pendulums are so suspended on points that their respective directions of movement are at right angles to one another--that is, pendulum A can swing only north and south, as it were, and pendulum B only east and west. On the top of B is a platform to carry a card, and on the upper end of A a lever is pivoted so as to be able to swing only vertically upwards and downwards. At its end this lever carries a pen, which when at rest lies on the centre of the card platform.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 168.--Simple Rectilinear Harmonograph.]

The bob, or weight, of a pendulum can be clamped at any point on its rod, so that the rate or "period" of swing may be adjusted or altered. The nearer the weight is brought to the point of suspension, the oftener will the pendulum swing to and fro in a given time--usually taken as one minute.

From this it is obvious that the rates of swing of the two pendulums can be adjusted relatively to one another. If they are exactly equal, they are said to be in unison, and under these conditions the instrument would trace figures varying in outline between the extremes of a straight line on the one hand and a circle on the other. A straight line would result if both pendulums were released at the same time, a circle,[1] if one were released when the other had half finished a swing, and the intermediate ellipses would be produced by various alterations of "phase," or time of the commencement of the swing of one pendulum relatively to the commencement of the swing of the other.

[Footnote 1: It should be pointed out here that the presence of friction reduces the "amplitude," or distance through which a pendulum moves, at every swing; so that a true circle cannot be produced by free swinging pendulums, but only a spiral with coils very close together.]

But the interest of the harmonograph centres round the fact that the periods of the pendulums can be tuned to one another. Thus, if A be set to swing twice while B swings three times, an entirely new series of figures results; and the variety is further increased by altering the respective amplitudes of swing and phase of the pendulums.

We have now gone far enough to be able to point out why the harmonograph is so called. In the case just mentioned the period rates of A and B are as 2: 3. Now, if the note C on the piano be struck the strings give a certain note, because they vibrate a certain number of times per second. Strike the G next above the C, and you get a note resulting from strings vibrating half as many times again per second as did the C strings--that is, the relative rates of vibration of notes C and G are the same as those of pendulums A and B--namely, as 2 is to 3. Hence the "harmony" of the pendulums when so adjusted is known as a "major fifth," the musical chord produced by striking C and G simultaneously.

In like manner if A swings four times to B's five times, you get a "major third;" if five times to B's six times, a "minor third;" and if once to B's three times, a "perfect twelfth;" if thrice to B's five times, a "major sixth;" if once to B's twice, an "octave;" and so on.

So far we have considered the figures obtained by two pendulums swinging in straight lines only. They are beautiful and of infinite variety, and one advantage attaching to this form of harmonograph is, that the same figure can be reproduced exactly an indefinite number of times by releasing the pendulums from the same points.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 169.--Goold's Twin Elliptic Pendulum Hamonograph.]

But a fresh field is opened if for the one-direction suspension of pendulum B we subst.i.tute a gimbal, or universal joint, permitting movement in all directions, so that the pendulum is able to describe a more or less circular path. The figures obtained by this simple modification are the results of compounded rectilinear and circular movements.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 170.--Benham's miniature Twin Elliptic Pendulum Harmonograph.]

The reader will probably now see even fresh possibilities if both pendulums are given universal movement. This can be effected with the independent pendulums; but a more convenient method of obtaining equivalent results is presented in the Twin Elliptic Pendulum invented by Mr. Joseph Goold, and shown in Fig. 169. It consists of--(1) a long pendulum, free to swing in all directions, suspended from the ceiling or some other suitable point. The card on which the figure is to be traced, and the weights, are placed on a platform at the bottom of this pendulum. (2) A second and shorter free pendulum, known as the "deflector," hung from the bottom of the first.

This form of harmonograph gives figures of infinite variety and of extreme beauty and complexity. Its chief drawback is its length and weight, which render it more or less of a fixture.

Fortunately, Mr. C. E. Benham of Colchester has devised a Miniature Twin Elliptic Pendulum which possesses the advantages of the Goold, but can be transported easily and set up anywhere. This apparatus is sketched in Fig.

170. The main or platform pendulum resembles in this case that of the Rectilinear Harmonograph, the card platform being above the point of suspension.